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Statistically, most students in American colleges achieve low marks, fail a lot of classes, or drop out entirely. I suspect these students still encounter daun

by hapless 14y ago

Statistically, most students in American colleges achieve low marks, fail a lot of classes, or drop out entirely. I suspect these students still encounter daunting obstacles in the real world. The difference between schooling and the real world is not the heapings of praise, it is the lack of regimentation. In the white-collar workplace, there is not often a cohort of twenty men completing the exact same carefully-directed tasks as the recent graduate. p.s. English "perfect" comes from Old French. Using it as a verb is valid but rarely seen in today's English. To me, the sentence "I am in a class to perfect my French" seems arrogant because it implies that my French is already very good.

GuiA 14y ago
>Statistically, most students in American colleges achieve low marks, fail a lot of classes, or drop out entirely. I suspect these students still encounter daunting obstacles in the real world. Very good point. Perhaps my point then becomes more about how the top ~30% of students are treated, rather than all of them. Incidentally, I am reminded of this paper: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9686450 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9686450
evincarofautumn 14y ago
I agree with you about praise versus regimentation. My parents never really praised or chided me and my sister. If we did something wrong, they treated it as a learning opportunity. If you washed the dishes badly, it was probably because you just need to learn how to wash dishes better. If you hit somebody, it was probably because you need to learn why hitting other kids isn’t necessarily the best way to resolve an argument. So in a way I was raised to believe that praise and encouragement for their own sake are basically useless—real critique should give you a simple, concrete handhold by which to improve yourself. We also had a lot of freedom to make our own mistakes, though my parents were always there if we needed them. And that isn’t at all how school works. I wasn’t very “successful” in school, because I was depressed by the dishonesty of getting good grades without any real effort. All the way through college, I wanted challenges, but there simply weren’t any to be had. So I had to find my own and motivate myself to learn and improve, or else I would have killed myself. So, sure, I got some bad grades, failed a couple of classes, and dropped out of college. But it was just because I’m the kind of person who’s better off working on real challenges. The “real world” didn’t break me down—it saved my life.
afandian 14y ago
Using 'perfect' in that sense is very common in British English.

by hapless 14y ago

GuiA 14y ago

>Statistically, most students in American colleges achieve low marks, fail a lot of classes, or drop out entirely. I suspect these students still encounter daunting obstacles in the real world. Very good point. Perhaps my point then becomes more about how the top ~30% of students are treated, rather than all of them. Incidentally, I am reminded of this paper: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9686450 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9686450

evincarofautumn 14y ago

I agree with you about praise versus regimentation. My parents never really praised or chided me and my sister. If we did something wrong, they treated it as a learning opportunity. If you washed the dishes badly, it was probably because you just need to learn how to wash dishes better. If you hit somebody, it was probably because you need to learn why hitting other kids isn’t necessarily the best way to resolve an argument. So in a way I was raised to believe that praise and encouragement for their own sake are basically useless—real critique should give you a simple, concrete handhold by which to improve yourself. We also had a lot of freedom to make our own mistakes, though my parents were always there if we needed them. And that isn’t at all how school works. I wasn’t very “successful” in school, because I was depressed by the dishonesty of getting good grades without any real effort. All the way through college, I wanted challenges, but there simply weren’t any to be had. So I had to find my own and motivate myself to learn and improve, or else I would have killed myself. So, sure, I got some bad grades, failed a couple of classes, and dropped out of college. But it was just because I’m the kind of person who’s better off working on real challenges. The “real world” didn’t break me down—it saved my life.

afandian 14y ago

Using 'perfect' in that sense is very common in British English.